Page 84 - MERCIAN Eagle 2020

82
fine hospitality. Its ninety members are supported by two Canadian helicopters
for work up on the polar plateau and the construction of the Antarctic’s first solid rock 2.5 km runway to support year-round air operations in the Ross Sea region.
Following the track of ice breaker Polar Star, we arrived at the
large US McMurdo Station
and Discovery Hut named
‘Hoosh,’ a thick stew made from pemmican (a mixture of dried meat, fat and cereal) mixed with other ingredients.
At Cape Evans we visited Scott’s 1911- 13 expedition hut from where he competed with the Norwegian Roald Amundsen to reach the Pole. Amundsen had experience
Senior officer doing the Polar Plunge
reached 88°23’ S but he wisely decided that, if they pressed on to the Pole, they would not be able to get back.
For his ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-17 he sent a party to the Ross Sea to lay depots on the Ross
Ice Shelf and the Beardmore Glacier. Poor leadership led to the loss of their supply ship and arguments over the use of dogs. Operating from Cape Evans and Hut Point the team were out on the ice for 198 days during which one team member died. Two more later disappeared in a blizzard walking back from Hut Point to Cape Evans but the surviving three were rescued by Shackleton in January 1917.
Further North in Robertson Bay, the brave or foolhardy, including the writer, did the Polar Plunge from the foot of the gangway. The air temperature was minus 2.6 degrees Celsius and the water a bracing plus 0.6. Whether jumping or diving, all held a rope so we could be hauled quickly out of the freezing water. On via the Balleny Islands, the final stops were at the Sub-Antarctic Campbell and Snares Islands to see
Royal Albatrosses and the local penguins. Returning to Bluff we had been at sea for 28 days travelling as far South as 77°51.05’ and had covered 5312 nautical miles.
after the ship of Scott’s 1901-1904 British National Antarctic Expedition. Ernest Shackleton was a member of his polar party on that occasion; they only reached 82° 17’ S and Scott blamed Shackleton for his failure to attain the Pole. In February 2002 HRH The Princess Royal, then WFR Colonel- in-Chief, visited the site to mark with a blue plaque the centenary of the Discovery’s arrival.
On their return, Evans and Oates succumbed to injury, scurvy, and exhaustion on the ice leaving Scott, Bowers, and Wilson to die together in their tent in March
of Arctic exploration and relied on dogs to win their race in December 1911. Meanwhile Scott’s tractors had broken down, his mules had had to be shot and
the dogs had returned to Cape Evans leaving Scott’s party to man haul their sleds to the Pole where in January 1912 they found the Norwegian flag. On their return, Evans and Oates succumbed to injury, scurvy, and exhaustion on the ice leaving Scott, Bowers, and Wilson to die together in
The dry Antarctic climate has helped preserve artefacts left behind in all three huts. They have recently been removed, curated, repaired and replaced on site. Artefacts include tins of Huntley and Palmer biscuits and a Primus Stove used to cook
their tent in March.
At Cape Royds Shackleton’s earlier
Nimrod expedition hut was a simpler affair. His party explored the region and climbed Mount Erebus; an active 12,500 ft. volcano named after a ship on James Clark Ross’s 1839-41 expedition. Shackleton’s party
THE MERCIAN EAGLE